This report is one out of a series of five reports prepared for the Idaho Legislature, Office of Performance Evaluations (OPE) and Idaho Health Care Task Force as part of the project, "Idaho’s Health Care Costs and Options to Improve Health Care Access." This report is on Task 5, a study of the trends in and drivers of health care expenditures in Idaho.

The study focuses on trends in public and private health care spending in Idaho using the most recent data available. We rely on Idaho-specific data collected as part of Task 1 (Cataloging Public Health Expenditures in Idaho) and Task 2 (Estimating Private Health Expenditures in Idaho), and supplement with national data when state-level data are not available.

The intent of this and the other reports is to establish baseline data that can be used to help frame the policy debate and to answer specific questions that may arise during discussions of health reform options in the state. These reports document many aspects of health care spending and trends to help inform the work of Idaho policy makers as they debate the regulatory and/or market-based approaches they will employ to addressing health costs, coverage, and access. In particular, the cost and cost growth issues addressed in this report may warrant additional discussion by policy makers. December 2007.

The Idaho Health Care Task Force reports prepared by SHADAC include:

• Task 1:  Cataloging Public Health Expenditures in Idaho
• Task 2:  Estimating Private Health Expenditures in Idaho
• Task 5:  Trends in and Drivers of Health Expenditures in Idaho